re-up v.— «In hip-hop parlance, to “re-up” (a riff on the military term) is to make battle, to put adversaries on notice in no uncertain terms. But a tumultuous couple of years notwithstanding, it may be difficult to figure...
farmer blow n.— «“I was in 4-H and FFA, a total farm girl. That helped in the Army, kind of a roughneck thing,” she says and launches into a description about a friend in her military unit, “the prissiest thing you’d ever want...
blind adj.— «Top Government sources have told The Sunday Express that a majority of the 2,000-strong Krasnopol inventory has been found defective: the shell, priced over Rs 15 lakh per piece, hits the target accurately during test-firing...
honey bucket n.— «The Russians even installed a trash airlock for the regular disposal of food containers, dirty clothing, small items of failed equipment, and sealed fecal filters from their space toilet. When military trackers at the...
self-licking ice cream cone n.— «For grateful military leaders, there was merit in reinforcement for its own sake. One senior general compared the existing force to a “self-licking ice cream cone”—so small and weak that it...
7,000-mile screwdriver n.— «Senior military officers referred to it as “the 7,000-mile screwdriver.” That was their way of describing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s penchant for micromanaging aspects of the Iraq War...